Robert mckeighan



No. 625,!88. Patented May I6, |899. R. MGKEIGHAN.

CIPHER WRITER.

(Application led Aug. 5, 1898.) (No Model.)

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UNTTTD STATES PATENT OFFICE.`

ROBERT MCKEIGHAN, OF IIAVTI'IORN, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO ADDISON B. TAYLOR, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS..

ClPHER-WRITER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N o. 625,188, dated May 16, 1 899.

Application filed August 5, 1898. Serial No. 687,853. (No model.)

To all when?, t may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT MCKEIGHAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hawthorn, Cook county, Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cipher- IVriters, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to make a device or mechanism by which parties desiring to correspond in cipher may impart the desired information to each other by operating the device or mechanism in accordance with an agreed plan, system, or combination known to themselves alone and by which and in accordance with which they may find any word or words intended to form part of a desired message; and my invention consists in the features and details of construction hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure l is a plan view of the card and disk employed in my cipher-writing device or mechanism; Fig. 2, a plan view of the card employed, with the disk removed; and Fig. 3, a transverse section taken on line 3 of Fig. l.

In making my improved cipher-writing device or mechanism I make a card A preferably circular and of any desired size to contain the letters, iigures, signs, or marks intended to be placed thereon. I may here say that I shall term this card a f master-board and that I shall employ the term characters as a short means of indicating the letters, gures, dac., placed on the master-board and also on the disk hereinafter described.

In practice Iprefer to form the master-board circular and about six inches in diameter, as a smaller one would require too great a crowding of the characters to be placed on it, while one of larger diameter would afford more room than required for the embodiment of the invention. I arrange around the outer margin of the master-board, near its peripheral edge, a circular row of cipher characters B, which may be entirely arbitrary in their selection and arrangement. In the illustration of the invention exhibited in the drawings I have for convenience made use of the letters of the alphabet, with the question-mark, exclamation-point, and the figures 2 and et in addition, making thirty characters in all. I then leave a circular or annular space O on the master-board just inside the marginal row of cipher characters, and within this space I arrange annular rows or rings of alphabetical characters-preferably five of them. Each annular row or ring of characters contains in the illustration of the drawings the same characters as those in the marginal row, except that the arrangement or disposition of the characters in each row differs from the arrangement or disposition of the characters in the marginal row and in each of the others. In short, the characters are so transposed as to make their location in each row diifer from their location in each and all of the others. While I have said that the cipher characters used in the marginal row are entirely arbitrary, yet in the inner annular rows the characters should be the letters of the alphabet, including the question-mark, exclamationpoint, and two characters-as, for example, 2 and 1U-to indicate the comma and period, though the arrangement and location of these characters are entirely fanciful and arbitrary. These rows should be formed of alphabetical characters, so as to spell out words from them. The arrangement of the annular rows of the alphabetical characters forms a number of radial rows equal to the total number of characters used in each row, as will be obvious from an inspection of the master-board shown in the drawings. No character should be repeated in any radial row, so that when any radial row is examined it should be seen to be composed of different characters.

Having constructed a master-board provided with a marginal row of cipher characters and with the annular rows of alphabetical characters forming radial rows, as above explained, I make a disk D to be used in connection with it. For convenience I shall term this disk a keyboard This keyboard is also preferably circular and of less diameter than the master-board, but of such diameter that its periphery will lie within the marginal row'of cipher characters on the master-board, as will appear from an inspection of Fig. 1 of the drawings. The keyboard is provided s scales with a number of radial slots CZ, which in the drawings are numbered from l to 6, respectively. I also prefer to cut out as large open-A ings d between the radial slots as practicable, so as to expose to view as much of the master-board and of the alphabetical characters thereon as may be necessary to enable V'one to readily see and find any particular for convenience to use the same characters.

as those employed in the marginal and annular rows on the master-board. There letters of the alphabet are used, I prefer to avoid too close'an'arrangement of vowels together in the same radial row. Each radial row on the keyboard shown in the drawings consists of five characters, making thirty in all. The keyboard is intended to lie on the masterboard and so that it can be rotated or turned thereon in the one direction or the other to expose diiferent radial rows of alphabetical characters through the radial slots as it is turned. To facilitate the turning or rotation of the keyboard on the master-board, I prefer to mount them both on a base E, with a pin e projecting up through them, as shown in the drawings.

In the illustration of my invention I have simply used one master-board and on`e keyboard. I wish to say, however, that any number may be used in carrying out my invention so long as the location and position of the characters differ ou each from those on the others. The characters may be printed in different order on both sides ot' the boards, so that by turning them over new combinations may be employed; but, as already said, several master-boards and several keyboards may be mounted on the base with the pin e projecting up through them, so that such of them as desired may be used. Of course where a plurality of master-boards and keyboards are used the ones agreed upon for the cipher-writing would need t0 be exposed to View when it was intended to use them. If

, they were in the bottom, then those on top of them should be removed, so as to permit access to them for use. The master-boards and keyboards should be numbered or otherwise suitably and conveniently designated, so that the parties intending to use them could agree between themselves as to the particular keyboard that should be used with a particular master-board. It they were numbered, then the parties might agree to use master-board No. l and keyboard No. l together, or master-board No. l and keyboard No. 2, or master-board No. 3 and keyboard No. l together, depending upon the agreement and understanding of the parties employing them, as

will be understood when I come to describe the use and operation of my device or mechanism.

With the construction and arrangement of the master-board and keyboard with their characters as above described it remains to explain their operation and use.

We will assume that-two parties X and Z, provided with my cipher mechanism as above and instructed in its operation and use, desire to correspond in cipher. l/Ve will suppose that X is sending Z on some secret and important mission. They decide between themselves before they separate as to what particular combination they will use for their own communications. These combinations can be practically unlimited in number, so that though any number of parties be provided with my cipher device or mechanism it will be practically impossible for any duplication of combinations to occur. We will assume that the particular combination that X and Z decide upon will be master-board No. l and keyboard ,No. l (like those illustrated in the drawings) and radial slot No. 5. I-Iere we have their combination, so far as masterboard, keyboard, and slot are concerned. They then complete their combination by adopting certain indicating characters, as I have termed them. These indicating characters may consist of any number, but preferably not less than tive, and the parties selecting them may agree at the time of their selection to use them in any desired order. We will assume, however, that X and Z have adopted for their indicating characters the particular characters on the radial slot 5, which they have selected as the slot-number of their combination, though, as above indicated, any indicating characters on the keyboard maybe selected without-reference to their location. These letters would be P, X, G, E, and T, and we will assume that they have agreed to use them in the order in which they appear on the keyboard. Of course they could agree to use them in any other order that they might desire. They could use them from the bottom to the top or they could begin by using them from the middle character, going alternatelyin each direction. We will assume, however,that they have agreed to use them in the order in which they appear on the keyboard. We will now assume that after Z has departed on his mission circumstances arise which make it desirable to recall him, which it is desired to do without disclosing the fact to the telegraph-ofice or to any one in whose hands the message might fall. X desires to communicate to Z the word Return.7 In order to determine the cipher message to be telegraphed,written or sent to him, he turns the keyboard until the first indicating character stands opposite the letter R on the master-board. He sees that this brings the slot 5 opposite the figure 4 in the marginal row on the mas ter-board. He therefore sets down the fig- IOS IIO

'lire a as the first character of the message. He then turns the keyboard until the second indicating character stands opposite the letter E on the master-board. This brings the slot 5 opposite the letter G in the marginal row on the master-board. IIe therefore sets down G as the second character of the message. He then turns the keyboard until the third indicating character G stands opposite the letter T on the master-board. This brings the slot 5 opposite the iigure 2 in the marginal row on the mastenboard. IIe therefore sets down the figure 2 as the third character of the message. IIe then turns the keyboard until the fourth indicating character stands opposite the letter U on the master-board. This brings the slot 5 opposite the letter D in the marginal row on the master-board. I-Ie therefore sets down the letter D as the fourth character of the message. I-Ie then turns the keyboard until the fifth indicating character T stands opposite the letter R on the master-board. This brings the slot 5 opposite the letter WV in the marginal row on the master-board. He therefore sets down the letter W as the iit'th letter of the message. I-Ie now goes back to the first of the indicating characters again and turns the keyboard until the letter P stands opposite the letter N on the ni aster-board. This brings the slot 5 opposite the letter K in the marginal row on the master-board- He therefore sets down the letter I as the sixth letter of the message. The entire message received by Z, therefore, will read as follows: 4, G, 2, D, IV, K. XV hen he receives this message, he takes his device or mechanism and by turning the keyboard until the slot 5 stands opposite the various characters of the inessage as found in the marginal row on the master-board successively he is able to translate the message. To illustrate: He first moves the slot 5 opposite the gure et and sees that the first indicating character points out the letter R. IIe then moves the slot 5 opposite the letter G, and he sees that the second indicating character points out the letter E He then moves the slot 5 opposite the ligure 2 7 and sees that the third indicating character points out the letter T. IIe then moves the slot 5 opposite the letter D and finds that the fourth indicating character points out the letter U. He then moves the slot 5 opposite the letter IV and linds that the fifth indicating character points out the letter E IIe then moves the slot 5 opposite the letter K and tinds that the first indicating characterbecause having used all of them he begins to repeat them again-points out the letter N. I-Ie has thus spelled out the word Return. In like manner any other words can be included in the message and spelled out in the same way.

In order that I may not be confined to nonessentials, I desire to say that I consider that there are a number of changes that can be made Without departing from the spirit of my invention. I will suggest some of these changes, although I consider them practically obvious. I have shown in the drawings the marginal row of cipher characters as composed mainly of letters of the alphabet. They may, however, be composed entirely of numberspreferably with two figures in each number-and in practice I prefer to provide one master-board in each set with a marginal row of numbers. In the drawings I have shown the master-board as circular in form; but it is obvious that the particular shape of the master-board is a non-essential, as it could be made square or any other form and the characters applied to it so as to embody my invention. In the drawings I have represented the keyboard as a disk provided with radial slots. It is obvious, however, that it need not be a disk and thata hub with radial arms or spokes extending out to carry the in dicating characters would serve the purpose equally as well.

Vhat I regard as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In devices of the class described, the combination of a master-board containing a set of cipher characters and sets of alphabetical characters, and a keyboard provided with indicating characters to enable a cipher message to be both written and translated, substantially as described.

2. In devices of the class described, the combination of a master-board provided with a set of cipher characters at or near its margin and sets of alphabetical characters ar ranged in the space inclosed by the cipher characters, and a keyboard provided with means for pointing out any desired cipher character and with indicating characters for pointing out alphabetical characters when the desired cipher character has been pointed out, whereby a ciphermessage may be translated, substantially as described.

3. In devices of the class described, the combination of a master-board arranged in the form of a wheel and provided with a series of cipher characters at or near its peripheral edge and with alphabetical characters arranged in radial rows within the cipher characters, and a keyboard rotatably mounted with regard to the master-board and provided with means for dividing the alphabetical characters into radial rows and pointing out any desired cipher character, and with indicating characters to enable the cipher to be both written and translated, substantially as described.

4C. In devices of the class described, the combination of a master-board arranged in the form of a wheel or disk and provided with a series of cipher characters at or nearits peripheral edge, and with alphabetical characters arranged in radial rows within the cipher characters, and a keyboard rotatably mount- IOO IIO

ed with regard to and adapted to be used in message may be both written and translated, connection with the master-board, and prosubstantially as described. vided With radial rows of indicating characters adapted to divide the alphabetical char'- ROBERT MCKEIGHAN 5 acters on the master-board into radial rows Witnesses:

and indicate'the same, and means for point SAML. W. BANNING, ing out a cipher character, whereby a cipher THOMAS B. MCGREGOR 

